Hi guys, we recently bought an 05 liberty and my previous car was AWD so i didnt have to really bother about selecting 4wd. So my first question is when the snow hits and i need 4wd, do i use 4 HI when driving on the road ?

My second question is those plastic hood guards that you can get to protect against stone chips, do they work ok ? never really had a problem in the UK with stone chips, but here ive noticed it.

I assume you have the command trac part-time system. Your selector should offer you the option of 2hi, 4hi, N, 4lo. If so, yes you use the 4hi setting whenever the road is covered. Do not use 4wd if there is bare pavement. It can tear up the transfer case. 4lo almost triples your gear ration and is for extremely poor traction situations and will cut your top speed to about 40 MPH. It would be a rare day indeed that you needed it to travel on a road, even in adverse weather.

if you have the selct trac full-time system, put it in fulltime and go for it. It is an AWD system and can by used anytime.

I have no experience with the guards.

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'88 MJ 4.0L/AW4/231 SWB HPD30 & trac-loc D44 w/3.73's
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thanks for the reply

I agree with everything InCommando said in regards to 4WD.

In regards to the hood guard. It will protect the front edge of the hood from stone chips, though you may find that now instead of the stone chipping you hood paint, it now bounces of the hood guard and hits your windshield. The main draw back I had with them on a previous truck is snow. If you live in an area that gets snow, and you don't clear the snow out from under the hood guard because you are lazy like me , then it ultimately turns into a chunk of ice and causes premature rust on the front edge of the hood.

If your hood has soo many chips that you are considering repainting it, then instead of purchasing the hood guard I would personally rather use spray on rock guard on the front of the hood, and then paint over that with the regular hood colour.

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2002 Liberty Renegade
-OME 927-Rancho RSX 17505-3 Ring Clevis-JBA UCA-Teraflex Bump Stop
-JBA-LIB25R Rear Coil-2 Upper/Lower Iso-Skyjacker H7088 Shocks-3 Hockey Puck Bump Stops
-Powerslot Rotors-Moab Rims-BFG TA/KO 265-75-R16
-ARB Bumper-Rock Rails
-Super 44 Exhaust
+ Some More Crap

weve had the car just under a month and done 3200 miles and ive noticed a few chips, they are only in the top coat not down to the metal, but i didnt want it to turn rusty. Don't want a chipped windshield either lol.

I for one don't like them, but those leathery car bra deals work great to protect the paint from rocks.. however I've never been real keen on protecting something by covering it up so that it's never seen

x2 on the hood plastic shield vs ice collection and windshields but my theory is, that's going to happen regardless

I personally clean and wax my hood often, it gets wax back over chips so that they don't rust and once a year I strip it down and carefully use touch up then pile 4 or 5 coats of wax back on and start over for another year

With the newer synthetic waxes like turtlewax ice or meguires or NX2 a coat of wax can be put on and taken off within ten minutes without breaking a sweat

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03 Renegade (Black)
177k miles 3.7L gas - 45RFE
Command Trac / 4.10s
Lift: ft. 790+ rr. JBA4+
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